Funding instruments

Funding instruments

There are mainly two EU instruments supporting specifically agriculture and forestry research and innovation: Horizon 2020 and Rural development policy. Many other EU policies addressing innovation and skills development in general can also contribute to agricultural research and innovation.

Horizon 2020

Horizon 2020 is the EU's framework programme for Research and Innovation for 2014-2020 (80 billion euros). It is structured in three main pillars:

Excellent science

Industrial leadership

Societal challenges

All three pillars include opportunities for agricultural research and innovation, the main one being societal challenges.

These pillars use a variety of instruments. The main ones which offer opportunities for agriculture, food and forestry are:

Research and innovation actions: multi-national projects for knowledge creation and innovation

Rural development policy

Rural development policy is implemented through Rural development programmes. These are elaborated and managed by Member States or regions in compliance with the European Rural development regulation. Knowledge transfer and innovation is one of the 6 priorities of the Rural development policy 2014-2020. Managing authorities will be able to use 18 different measures to implement this priority. The European Commission has issued a guidance document on how to programme innovation and implement the European Innovation Partnership.

Read more about funding streams for agricultural innovation on EIP-AGRI webpage on Funding streams.

Other EU policies supporting innovation

Developing innovation also requires improving skills, facilitating coordination or investing in infrastructures. Many EU policies are relevant to agriculture and forestry research and innovation for example: